The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) filed an appeal to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to limit the decision of the Court that expanded the forum by prerogative of function, technical name of the privileged forum to federal deputies and senators. In March this year, The Supreme decided that the lawsuit against a politician can continue to court even after the end of the term.
From the understanding, the privileged forum of a politician is maintained in the Supreme Court if the crime has been committed during the exercise of the parliamentary function. The rule applies to cases of resignation, non -reelection or cassation.
In the demonstration sent to the STF on Tuesday (5), The Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet, says that the decision cannot be applied automatically and unrestrictedly to all processes.
For the prosecutor, the decision should not be valid for criminal actions that are already in the final stages. Thus, these processes must remain in the lower instances in which they were being processed.
“The criminal prosecutions that were already on the grounds, with the opening of a deadline for submission of final allegations, should remain under the jurisdiction of the organs that were giving them regular progress, thus ensuring an outcome compatible with the guarantees of due process of law,” argues Gonet.
In the prosecutor’s assessment, the decision of the STF that expanded the forum can lead to “investigative setback”.
“Contrary to what was intended, the automatic and unrestricted implementation of the new orientation has reproduced exactly the deleterious effects that was sought to mitigate with the overcoming of the previous understanding, causing concrete risks of investigative setback, slowness and ultimately judicial ineffectiveness,” he added.
Despite the manifestation of the PGR, there is no date for the judgment of the appeal.
End of the forum
The agenda on changes in the privileged forum surfaced this week after parliamentarians who support Jair Bolsonaro start political articulations by approving amendments to the STF’s judgments rules to remove the process of the court’s coup plot and prevent the judgment of the former president.
In the STF, Bolsonaro is one of the defendants of core 1 of the criminal action of the coup. The process is in the final phase, leaving only the delivery of the final defenses, which will take place next week. The trial is expected to take place in September.
